Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
Once you spend half your life just covering up
Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man
Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man said, "Son, if it was up to me"
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said, "Son, don't you understand?"
I had a brother at Khe Sahn
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, but he's all gone
He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms
Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down this road
Ain't got nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I'm a long gone daddy in the U.S.A.
-Bruce Springsteen, "Born in the U.S.A."
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2 comments:
Yes, indeed it is. So is 'Pink Houses' by Mellencamp.
There’s a black man with a black cat
Living in a black neighborhood
He’s got an interstate running through his front yard
You know, he thinks that he’s got it so good
And there’s a woman in the kitchen
Cleaning up the evening slop
And he looks at her and says, “Hey Darling
I can remember when you could stop a clock”
Well there’s a young man in a t-shirt
Listening to a rockin’ rollin’ station
He’s got greasy hair, greasy smile
He says, “Lord, this must be my destination
’Cause they told me when I was younger
‘Boy, you’re gonna be president’
But just like everything else, those old crazy dreams
Just kinda came and went”
Well there’s people and more people
What do they know know know
Go to work in some high rise
And vacation down at the Gulf of Mexico
And there’s winners and there’s losers
But they ain’t no big deal
’Cause the simple man, Baby
Pays for the thrills, the bills, the pills that kill
But ain’t that America for you and me
Ain’t that America something to see
Ain’t that America home of the free
Little pink houses for you and me
-John Mellencamp, “Pink Houses”
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